Page 6 of The Daughter of the Scarred Elf

She didn’t want to leave the capital, and she didn’t want to say goodbye.

So even as she was sitting in her home for the last time with Eyfura, Nollar, and Magni, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

“I can’t believe—” Eyfura bit her trembling bottom lip. Her cheeks and nose were ruddy from crying so much, and every few seconds, her face crumpled together.

“I’ll be fine,” Kolfinna told her for the umpteenth time. She reached over and squeezed her hand tightly—reassuringly. “Fae are very adaptable, so I’ll be okay.”

“I know you’ll be fine. You can handle yourself, but …” Eyfura sniffled and turned to her younger brother, whose eyes were similarly red. “But we’ll miss you.”

Nollar nodded from his spot across from her and fiddled with the edge of the couch seat. His blond hair obscured half of his face while he looked down at his knees. “The military will treat you better, I hope. And if they don’t …” He raised his head to stare at her levelly. “You have to kick their asses.”

Magni’s eyebrow arched and Kolfinna laughed without meaning to.

“That’s the plan,” she said. Truthfully, that was the plan. She didn’t intend to let anyone treat her like garbage. Not again. Not after how the Royal Guards treated her, and what good holding her tongue had done for her? “I’m just going to do my job and that’s it. I won’t give anyone time to bother me, and if they do”—she lifted her shoulders and gave him a ghost of a smile—“then I’ll kick their asses.”

Nollar finally grinned—the first real grin since stepping foot into her home that day. Eyfura chuckled, but that chuckle soon became an ugly sob again. Magni watched the entire affair with mild curiosity. He, very clearly, was not comfortable in her home, which she had expected. Although they had been in life-and-death situations several times—during the Eventyrslot ruins and the West Border mission—they weren’t exactly buddy-buddy, and he appeared even more uncomfortable at all the crying. When he had arrived at her doorstep with the two siblings in tow, Kolfinna had been more than surprised to see him. She had never thought he would warm up to her in any way. But then again, he was probably only here for Eyfura.

Magni reached into the breast pocket of his white uniform, pulled out a crisp linen handkerchief, and held it out to Eyfura. “The military is definitely different than the Royal Guards,” hesaid while Eyfura blotted her face with the handkerchief. “I believe they’re moretolerant.”

“Of fae?” Kolfinna snorted. She had delt with soldiers back in the Eventyrslot ruins, and they hadn’t been any different than the Royal Guards. “I doubt it.”

“Many of the Royal Guards are still set in their old ways.” He shrugged. “You have to keep in mind that the Royal Guards are very exclusive with whom they accept. The majority of the guards look down on those who aren’t from certain affluent families. So it only makes sense that they would doubly look down upon a fae, whom most people think are beneath humans.”

Eyfura’s eyebrows pulled together. “The military is full of rough people. Do you really think they’ll treat her any better?”

“It’spossible.” Magni raked a hand through his dark brown hair. “It really depends on the unit she’s going to.” His emerald-colored eyes flicked back to Kolfinna, and she could’ve sworn there was a hint of compassion in that flinty gaze. “Sijur Bernsten’s unit isn’t known to be rowdy, so I think you’ll be fine.”

“And if not”—Nollar patted his bicep and pointed to her—“you know what to do.”

Kolfinna laughed again, but her smile faded as she realized that after leaving the capital today, she would be stuck on the western border for fifteen years with Sijur. It was possible she wouldn’t see them again for many years to come. The very thought made the back of her eyes burn with unshed tears.

“This isn’t goodbye,” Magni said slowly, watching her carefully.

But it was.

“Yeah, we’ll be able to visit.” Nollar laced his hands together. “We’ll maybe even be able to go on joint missions together. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“Yes! We can ask Captain Asulf to try to assign us to those types of missions!” Eyfura beamed and tightened her hold on Kolfinna’s fingers. “We’ll have so much fun.”

Kolfinna could only nod. “This isn’t goodbye.”

“It isn’t!” Eyfura’s smile was so bright and hopeful that Kolfinna didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise.

3

The rideto the military base with Sijur and his fae soldier, Joran, took a little over a week and by the time Kolfinna arrived at the tall, barricaded walls enclosing the fortress Løveslot, she didn’t have room to be anxious—her exhaustion overrode everything. She wanted to collapse on a real bed, not a bedroll in the middle of the forest—which she normally would’ve loved, but due to the chill of winter, she wasn’t a fan of. Her only consolation was that they were at the tail end of winter, so it wasn’tthatcold during their travel.

Along with sleep, she wanted to run to a private room and scratch her back because, for whatever reason, the past few days had rendered her back absolutely itchy. As if something had bitten her a million times over. The itchiness came and went in waves. She had been so caught up with the trial, her deal with Sijur, and Blár not being around that she didn’t think too much about why her back had been so itchy the past two weeks. Maybe she had gotten an infection? Maybe her stress caused it? Maybe it was another strange change in her body, like her partially white hair? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she just wanted to be alone to sleep and scratch her blasted back. And thenrelax.

Something she hadn’t done in a long,longtime.

The giant gates of the base opened and the trio urged their horses forward. A blocky, rigid, and monolithic stone building stood in the center of the fortress walls. Its edges were sharp as blades, the walls a boring gray, and the window slabs tiny and suffocating.

There were smaller buildings surrounding the fort, which she could only guess were the armory, hospital, and administration building. Everywhere she looked, there were soldiers. Either training in rows, sparring, or running laps. The sea of gray uniforms made her sick. It was so much different than the Royal Guards. Everything about the Royal Guards was fancy, bedecked in gold and finery, and polished. Here, it was the opposite: rough, stiff, and monotonous.

Sijur and Joran dismounted from their horses when they reached the stables and Kolfinna did the same. She threw her rucksack over her shoulder and stared at the looming, brutal building she would be calling home for the next fifteen years.

Sijur motioned toward Kolfinna and Joran after he handed the reins of his horse to a stable hand. “Joran, please lead Kolfinna to her room.” He peered at the bright afternoon sky. “We’ve got about … hm, three hours until the evening? How about you rest up and then you can meet everyone at dinnertime?”

---